PARRY, Sir WILLIAM EDWARD (1790-1855). A British Arctic explorer and naval officer, born at Bath. on December 19. 1790. Ile joined the British Navy as midshipman in 1806, rose to the rank of rear-admiral, was in the hydrographie service from 1823 to 1829, and retired from the navy in 1852. He is best known as an Arctic explorer. In command of the ships Griper and Hecht he left England in 1819 to seek the North west Passage. He passed up Baffin Bay. explored and named Barrow Strait, Prince Regent's Inlet, and Wellington Channel. and reached Melville Island in September of that year, having crossed longitude 110° W., thereby winning a reward of £5000 offered by Parliament. The returned to England in November, 1820, and published a narrative of his expedition. He sailed again in 1821 with the Far!) and Hecla to make the Northwest Passage, and reached Repulse Bay, which he proved to be land-locked instead of a strait leading to the west as was supposed. He wintered on Melville Peninsula, where be made a study of the Eskimos, discovered Hecla and Fury Strait the next summer. hut was baffled by ice and compelled to spend the succeeding winter at the east entrance to Reda and Fury Strait. The expedition underwent many hard ships and was so enfeebled in the following sum mer that it was compelled to return to England, where it arrived in October, 1823. In Slay, 18'4,
Parry left with the same ships to make another attempt to discover the long-sought passage, but after a winter in the ice and the loss of the Fury, the expedition returned home in October, 1835. Parry then obtained the Admiralty's consent to attempt to reach the North Pole by the Spitz bergen route. He sailed on the Ueda for Spitz bergen in Slay, 1827, left his ship in Trurenberg Bay on June 21st, and started for the north with two boats, fitted with steel runners to serve as sledges, 28 men, and supplies for 71 days. The advance was extremely difficult. the party ex changing from floe ice to water several times each day, and the southward drift of the ice de prived Parry of many of his hard-won miles to the north. The highest point attained was in latitude 82° 45' N., which secured for England a new record of highest latitude and remained the highest north for forty-eight years. Parry died on July 8. 1855, after serving two years as governor of Greenwich Hospital. His best blown hooks are Journal of a Second 'Voyage for the Discovery of the Northat Passage, which appeared in 1S24, and Narrative of an Attempt to Beach the North Pole in Boats (1827).